Major Global IT vendors could hold back block chain technology: IT heavyweights have little to offer clients looking to leverage distributed ledgers.

Major global IT vendors--including leading hardware, systems software, eCommerce, big data, cloud, network, telco and systems integrator companies--have little wisdom, advice or vision to offer their customers and prospects when it comes to block chain technology, according to a survey Searching in Vain for The Block Chain just conducted by enterprise IT specialist consulting firm Lighthouse Partners.

Lighthouse Partners, Inc. Principal Peter Harris conducted a simple survey of 100 major global IT vendors, searching each company's website for the "blockchain" term. Some 77% of those companies had no mention at all of the innovative technology, a figure that rose to 85% when management consultancies and IT analysts were removed from the results.

Interest in block chain (also often written as a single word--blockchain) technology has taken off in recent months because of its promise to simplify the technology infrastructure needed to run financial services, healthcare, legal services and government. Business media reports on the technology are appearing daily, more than 25 major banks are investigating its uses, around 100 startups are developing block chain-based applications and nearly $1 Billion of venture capital has been invested to date (a figure similar to investment in the internet in its early years).

Moreover, the influential World Economic Forum is a fan. According to its September 2015 report "Deep Shift--Technology Tipping Points and Societal Impact," it believes that block chain approaches will impact global commerce in a big way, predicting that 10% of global gross domestic product will be storied in block chains by 2027.